


and i listen

by impulserun



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 13:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16640792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impulserun/pseuds/impulserun
Summary: He wakes up warm and loved.Or, in which Laurence is a cuddle monster.





	and i listen

Tharkay wakes in increments, newly aware of the all-encompassing warmth settled round his body. It is nice, and comfortable enough, so he makes to shift and resettle beneath the blankets for another stolen hour of rest, only to find that he cannot. The warmth, he realises, blearily cracking one tired eye open, is not from the covers at all. It is from Laurence.

A small flutter of affection makes itself known as his mind, slow to wake, registers the soft, ticklish sensation of Laurence’s breath puffing gently against the fine hairs of his neck, regular and slow. It is not the first time he has woken like this—and neither will it be the last, not for many years to come, he hopes—but it is always a welcome surprise, to wake like this, so enveloped in his lover’s embrace.

For a long time, he had thought Laurence to be cold and distant by nature; all his affection, it had seemed, in those long first months of their acquaintance, had been reserved for Temeraire, and for Temeraire alone. Tharkay had certainly never thought himself worthy of a place in the man’s heart. And yet here he was, heart and bed both, with Laurence himself curled comfortably around him like a cat dozing by the hearth.

Laurence grumbles slightly and shifts in his sleep, tucking his head into the hollow of Tharkay’s neck. Tharkay’s affection swells.

“Heavens, Will,” he murmurs, voice low, “have a care for my arm—I can hardly feel it.”

But Laurence does not reply, only nuzzles sleepily into his neck and tugs him impossibly closer. Tharkay resigns himself to his fate.

Not that he particularly minds. There are worse fates to have.

**Author's Note:**

> [15.11.18 16:36]  
> thought of the day: laurence being physically affectionate while he’s asleep b/c he had it beaten out of him when he was a kid (b/c propriety and what not)
> 
> [15.11.18 16:36]  
> cuddle monster laurence
> 
> [15.11.18 16:37]  
> they might start out at opposite sides of the bed but tharkay always wakes up to laurence wrapped around him
> 
> [15.11.18 16:37]  
> this is fine for the long winter months b/c laurence is a furnace
> 
> [15.11.18 16:37]  
> but with summer comes the Suffering


End file.
